Change UK: Chuka Umunna failed to ‘step up’ to be party leader, Anna Soubry says

Change UK leader claims former colleague should be prime minister but has ‘history of not stepping up’, as she labels Boris Johnson ‘clown on a zip wire’

Anna Soubry has accused Chuka Umunna of failing to “step up” to become leader of breakaway party Change UK.

The current leader said her former colleague, who joined the Liberal Democrats last month, had a ”history of not stepping up” and revealed that the pair, previously close allies, had not spoken for almost two months.

Mr Umunna had been expected to lead the breakaway group of former Tory and Labour MPs but instead Heidi Allen, a former Conservative, was chosen as interim leader.

Ms Allen quickly caused a stir and was criticised by colleagues after suggesting that pro-EU voters should back the Liberal Democrats rather than her own party.

Change UK split following a disastrous showing in the European elections in May, with Mr Umunna eventually joining the Liberal Democrats and Ms Allen and four others returning to sit as independents.

Ms Soubry leads the remaining five Change UK MPs.

Asked what had gone wrong during the party’s first few months, she told ITV News’s Acting Prime Minister podcast: “We made some terrible mistakes over leadership and I can tell you now that the problem was was that Chuka wouldn’t step up to it.

“If Chuka had stepped up to it he would have been our leader, it was certainly... well I always assumed it was absolutely going to happen.”

She accused Mr Umunna of having a “history of not stepping up”.

She said: “[It’s] very sad because to me he was absolutely the future for our country. I genuinely believe that, I wouldn’t have left my party if I hadn’t believed that.”

She added: “He should have been our leader and he wasn’t and then after the EU elections, which were a terrific blow of course ... you don’t give up at the first hurdle.”

Ms Soubry claimed her former colleague had made “a terrible mistake” by joining the Liberal Democrats – a decision she said he had not informed her of. The pair have exchanged emails in recent weeks but have not spoken in person since mid-May.

She said: “I think he made a terrible mistake. I was genuinely really sad about that.

“For me it personally hurt, it really did hurt. I thought he was my big buddy. He was a major part of why I left the Tory party – to start something new with him as the leader. I don’t want to be the bloody leader.”

She added: “I genuinely believe that Chuka Umunna should be prime minister of our country and had just what we were needing to be a great prime minister. I genuinely believe that.”

Ms Soubry also said she would “certainly not” give Boris Johnson a cabinet position if she was prime minister.

She said: “He couldn’t even be trusted to clean the loos. I’m being really serious. He was an appalling foreign secretary. He was the worst foreign secretary our country has had in living memory.

“This is serious stuff and he is about to waltz into No 10 and be the prime minister of our country as we face the biggest national crisis we’ve had since the second world war and this man, this clown on a zip wire, is going to be our country’s prime minister.”